Filling machines of the type referred to above appear substantially as a tank supported by a main carousel and holding a supply of the fluid substance; the carousel is rotatable about a vertical axis tangentially to a first transfer station by way of which it receives a succession of containers each affording a filler mouth.
The tank is rigidly associated with the carousel and affords a plurality of filler valves at the bottom, each of which can be associated with the mouth of a respective container in such a way that when the carousel is set in motion, the tank rotates about the vertical axis and its contents are dispensed by way of the filler valves into the containers, whereupon the filled containers are directed by way of a second transfer station onto an outfeed conveyor and thence to a further unit used in the manufacturing cycle, for example a capper or a labeller.
The solution of mounting the tank on top of the carousel as outlined above is advantageous in that it gives the equipment a compact geometry and manageable dimensions, but presents certain drawbacks strongly limiting versatility of use.
A first drawback consists in the fact that only one type of material can be dispensed into the containers, which excludes the possibility of using a single carousel to fill different containers with different substances in a single production run.
A further drawback derives from the difficulty encountered in cleaning the filler valves, which is a particularly important operation in the case of perishable materials such as foodstuffs. In effect, the valves and their delivery systems can be flushed clean only after the tank has been emptied completely and the production cycle terminated.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method of dispensing fluid substances into containers that will be unaffected by the drawbacks mentioned above in referring to the prior art.